Grade School: Reporter has question about hill steepness

[Rita Z]

Dear Best Friends - I'm on the home stretch of my long-suffering piece
for our local paper on cycling hills. Some of you respondents have
been most helpful and I again tap your wisdom to provide answers to my
even more inquisitive editor.

For those of you who keep tabs on the steepness of your climbs before
you start a ride -- perhaps by mapping out a route on DeLorme or one
of the various free online mapping programs:

-- at what (reasonable) grade do you start thinking about energy
conservation. (Basically, I'm looking for some folks to fill in a gap
in my story where I would need a quote that goes something like " If I
know I'm facing several YOUR DAUNTING PERCENTAG GOES HERE, E.G., xxx
percent climbs, I know I have to....YOUR STRATEGY GOES HERE.

-- do you have a sense of how long you can pedal seated at XXXX grade
before you have to stand. PLEASE ELABORATE.

I'm on deadline. If you feel like helping me out, feel free to:

a.) Call me at home up to 10:00 any night, even tonight at
703-998-7489.
b.) Call me at my office at your convenience 703-535-6317
c.) Send your answer directly to me at rzei...@gmail.com but don't
post it to the listserv, or send me contact info for me to contact you
and the best time to reach you -- hopefully before noon on Tuesday.
d.) Start a conversation thread on this listserv, which will allow me
in this article to say I pulled this from a recent online chat.

I HOPE THIS IS OK - BUT I WILL CONSIDER ANY CONVERSATION ATTACHED TO
THIS THREAD AS, AS WE SAY IN THE NEWS BIZ "ON THE RECORD." That means
I will consider it pluckable for a publishable quote, unless you tell
me otherwise. (fyi, I likely wouldn't quote from a listserv without
first asking permission.)

Thank you.

Rita Zeidner